London Banter - View Single Post

[email protected] · November 24th 05, 09:52 AM posted to uk.transport.london

Martin Underwood wrote:
wrote in
:

Mal wrote:
So....someone stole something from you worth a lot of money and you
blame someone else?? Its your ticket, its worth a fortune, look
after it. However there is a procedure for issuing a new one which
staff should do.

Mal

I blame LUL because they failed to manage the chaos that was created
because at least one gate was out of action. I am required to put my
ticket in the gate to be scanned , from that point on it is out of my
control. To be fair if the daft woman in front of me hadn't actually
stepped back out of the gate to allow a pushy f**king girl to barge he
way through (she was probabley travelling without a ticket) then I
would have been in a position to stop somebody swiping my ticket out
of the machine. The woman in front of me probabley picked up my
ticket so I hopethat she had an annual first class ticket taken. It
would make her think twice before allowing somebody to push in front.
Why is LUL's inability to manage a situation my fault.
After initially doing nothing and sending me on my way and Silverlink
saying they needed something from LUL before allowing me to proceed, I
returned to the LU station and created merry hell. The station manager
did then give me a replacement travel card but I did need to raise
merry hell to get it.

When I'm going up to London, I always pay by credit card and keep the
receipt separate from the ticket so I have independent proof that I bought
the ticket and of its ticket number. So far I've never lost or had stolen a
ticket, but there's always a first time...

I have also perfected the rapid movement of my hand from the entry slot to
the exit slot so my hand arrives there *before* the ticket it returned,
lessening the chances of someone taking it from me except by extreme force.

It's a shame that the LUL barriers take the ticket away and then return it
to you. If you swiped your own ticket, it would never leave your hand. I
presume swiping was considerd but found to be too unreliable. It also
doesn't allow a ticket to be retained if it is no longer valid because
you've finished your journey.
I am usually pretty careful once I insert my ticket into the gate .
While I am in possession of my ticket I can be responsible for it. Whan
I am not in possesssion of my ticket ie when it is in the gate it is
LUL's responsibility. That is why I hold them liable in this instance
for not managing the overcrowding. They did seem to indicate that this
is a fairly common occurance although in 15 years I have never come
anywhere close to this before.

Kevin